Top Play (WPA): It’s the top of the third with runners at the corners—yet another scoring opportunity for the Cubs. And while they’ve already gotten a run in the second inning, that pit in our stomachs is already acting up. From starting the game with a leadoff triple and not getting anything out of it to […]
Tag: Recap
Game 56 Recap: Tigers 6 Cubs 0
Top Play (WPA): This wasn’t a particularly fun game to watch and, I imagine, it wasn’t a particularly fun game for the Cubs to play either. The Tigers led off their half of the first inning with a double by Rajai Davis (who would later make a tremendous, leaping, over-the-wall catch on a David Ross fly […]
Game 55 Recap: Cubs 6 Nationals 3
Top Play (WPA): Following Starlin Castro’s 13th error of the season, Kyle Hendricks fell behind Ian Desmond 2-0 before delivering an 87-mph sinker that stayed up just enough for Desmond to create loft: Hendricks hit Miguel Montero’s outside target, but Desmond stayed with the pitch and drove a two-run home run into the right-field seats (.195). The Nationals enjoyed […]
GAME 53 RECAP: NATIONALS 7 CUBS 5
Top Play (WPA): While the score did get close again late in the game, this always felt like one the Cubs were going to lose. A large part of that was that Tsuyoshi Wada was clearly not in top form tonight, and it showed. With two on and nobody out in the second inning, Miguel […]
Game 52 Recap: Cubs 2 Nationals 1
Top Play (WPA): Among players with 450 plate appearances or fewer over the last calendar year, who has the highest fWAR? The answer, as you were wondering for all of 0.2 seconds (depends on your reading speed, YMMV) is Anthony Rendon, who’s put up a total of 4.8 since June 5 of last year, despite missing […]
GAME 51 RECAP: MARLINS 7 CUBS 3
Top Play (WPA): It didn’t take long for Jon Lester to unravel, in what was his worst outing of the season, allowing six earned runs on nine hits in just five complete innings of work. Following a month in which Lester posted a 1.76 ERA, he made quick work of Marlins hitters in the first […]
Game 50 Recap: Marlins 5 Cubs 2
Photo courtesy of Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports Top Play (WPA): This was a fairly frustrating game for the Cubs, who dropped the second game in a three-game series with the Marlins in Miami. You don’t have to be a statistician or an analytics genius to figure out what the top play in this game was […]
Game 49 Recap: Cubs 5 Marlins 1
Photo courtesy of Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports Top Play (WPA): As a testament to Jason Hammel’s brilliance on the mound, the Cubs needed just three batters get to the top play. Dexter Fowler broke out of a 1-for-24 slump by smacking the game’s first pitch into center for a single. Kris Bryant followed by working an impressive […]
Game 48 Recap: Cubs 2 Royals 1
Photo courtesy of Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports Top Play (WPA): You might think the top play of a game that included a walkoff hit would be that self-same walkoff, but if you did, you’d be wrong. By the time David Ross came to the plate in the 11th, the Cubs already had a pretty good shot at […]
GAME 47 RECAP: ROYALS 8 CUBS 4
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports Top Play (WPA): This was truly one of those games that stung to lose. Jorge Soler showed some very gutsy aggressiveness (.195) to put the Cubs right back in the game, bringing the score to 4-3 and chasing Edinson Volquez. In the seventh inning, Addison Russell finished what […]